Special education schools make case for funding

A proposed tuition freeze at state-regulated private schools that serve students with high needs will further squeeze tight budgets at those learning centers, special education advocates say.

Gerry Tuoti Wicked Local Newsbank Editor

A proposed tuition freeze at state-regulated private schools that serve students with high needs will further squeeze tight budgets at those learning centers, special education advocates say.

“Our schools are already behind the starting line when the gun goes off,” said Jim Major, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of 766 Approved Schools. “The state sets our tuition rate below our costs, so as a result 64 percent of our members operate at a deficit, which was $23 million in fiscal 2015.”

When students have special needs that a public school can’t meet, they are put in out-of-district placements at private schools that are licensed under Chapter 766. The public school districts are responsible for paying to send the students to the specialized schools, and the costs of fully serving a child with a severe disability are often significant. Tuition at a Chapter 766 school can range from around $38,000 for a day program, to more than $320,000 for a residential program, varying depending on the child’s specific needs.

Since those schools educate publicly funded students, they are subject to state regulation, and the state sets the tuition rates.

Gov. Charlie Baker’s fiscal 2018 budget, which was released in January, calls for freezing tuition rates at the current year’s levels.

A Baker administration spokeswoman said a federal waiver for restructuring MassHealth will help provide additional funds for special education. She also pointed to increases in Chapter 70, which provides general education funding to school districts, as a sign of Baker’s commitment on education.

The administration proposed level-funding the special education circuit-breaker account, which reimburses a portion of public school district’s out-of-district placement expenses, because data used to make projections for fiscal 2018 won’t be available until March. That has been a standard budgeting practice for several years, pre-dating the current administration.

The House and Senate will release their budget proposals this spring.

“The administration is committed to providing all students across the Commonwealth with a quality education and is pleased to have invested a historic amount in funding for [Massachusetts] public schools, increasing funding for Chapter 70 to $4.7 billion and funding for the special education circuit breaker by nearly $20 million since taking office,” Executive Office of Education spokeswoman Colleen Quinn said in an email. “The administration was also pleased to secure an innovative federal waiver for restructuring MassHealth which will direct nearly $40 million a year to help local education institutions cover services for students with special education needs.”

The Massachusetts Association of 766 Approved Schools is calling for a 1.5 percent tuition increase.

Given rising fixed costs associated with health insurance coverage and contractual obligations, a tuition freeze means there would actually be less money in the budget, Major argues. Many Chapter 766 schools, he said, are already unable to pay teachers salaries that are competitive with public schools, and staff turnover is typically around 30 percent.

Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, said the situation is difficult all around, for both public school districts and Chapter 766 schools.

Out-of-district placements often cost public school systems a significant amount of money, adding to budgetary pressures they face.

“We’re always concerned about the costs of out-of-district placements, but we’re not unmindful, however, that special education providers often have no control over inflation and other factors that raise costs,” he said.

The MASC has not taken a position for or against the tuition freeze.

House Speaker Pro Tempore Patricia Haddad, D-Somerset, is backing calls for a 1.5 percent tuition increase. For the past several years, governor’s budget proposals have called for freezes, only to have legislators approve tuition raises.

“I know this also affects the district schools, and it’s a very fine line to walk,” Haddad said. “The services these schools provide cannot be provided in a district school. I was on a school committee for eight years and we looked at out-of-district placements, and they were always something you groaned over.”

Lifting a tuition freeze, she said, would recognize that educating and serving children with severe special needs is expensive and requires highly specialized teachers.

Many parents say placements at Chapter 766 schools have been vital to their children. A number of them have joined the effort to advocate for tuition increases.

Needham resident Hart Peary’s son Charlie, who is now 5, has spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Charlie is nonverbal and is confined to a wheelchair. He has a vision impairment and suffers from hundreds of seizures daily.

After moving from Virginia back to Massachusetts, the Peary family worked with Needham schools to find a placement for Charlie. The public school system was unable to provide the services he needed in-house, but helped the family find a placement that was right for Charlie.

For just over a year, Charlie has been attending The Campus School at Boston College, located in Chestnut Hill.

“Without these schools, we would be lost,” Peary said. “He wouldn’t have quality of life or quality of care. For him, he is thriving. He’s never had peers before. He’s developing at his own pace … He gets all the therapies he needs in one place, and they do it so well.”

Wenham resident Gail Biancucci’s son, Brendan, has a severe form of epilepsy. Beginning when he was about 18 months old, he suffered roughly 180 seizures each day.

When he was 4, Brendan had major brain surgery. Doctors removed 70 percent of his brain’s left hemisphere, a procedure that brought the seizures largely under control.

“He is a walking, talking miracle,” Biancucci said.

While he no longer experienced frequent seizures, Brendan began to face significant behavioral and cognitive challenges.

Now 20, Brendan has been a student for 15 years at Melmark New England in Andover, where he’s in a program that specializes in educating students with neurological conditions.

“They really understand the seizures, the medication and the cognitive challenges that come with epilepsy and brain surgery,” Biancucci said.

Newton resident Zoe Forbes said the city’s public schools did everything they could to accommodate her son Sam’s disability, but when he was in fifth grade, they decided an outside placement would be best.

Sam now attends the Gifford School in Weston, where he’s been enrolled in a therapeutic program for nearly two years and gets specialized treatment and educational support.

“I feel so strongly that these kids with disabilities have so much to offer but need specialists to work with them, otherwise we as a society miss out on so much potential,” Forbes said. “I feel like these kids with special needs need to experience success at an early age so they know education can work for them despite their challenges. If we don’t have funding for these specialized schools, we’re taking a step back.”

David Finnegan of Mansfield has seen the effects of specialized education programs firsthand. His 8-year-old son, Henry, who is deaf and has severe autism, attends the Crossroads School in Natick.